Champagne wedding at LVMH
It's wedding season in Champagne. Flutes are raised and toasts are made to the union of several great houses with illustrious chefs of French gastronomy. More than just a brief engagement with a wine and food pairing over dinner, some champagne brands and houses are hiring the services of an "in-home" chef.
Ruinart and Arnaud Donckele celebrate an unprecedented union within the LVMH group. The famous chef of the Cheval Blanc Paris (Plénitude) and Saint-Tropez (La Vague d'Or) restaurants joins the prestigious champagne house with the mission of creating signature menus to accompany the "Dom Ruinart" cuvées and a selection of exceptional vintages. As part of the three-year contract, Arnaud Donckele will also develop the gastronomic offer deployed in Reims by chef Valérie Radou and at the house's events in France and abroad.
Who better than Arnaud Donckele, one of the most gifted chefs of his generation, to be Ruinart's ambassador? Trained alongside Michel Guérard, Alain Ducasse and Jean-Louis Nomicos, the chef arrived at La Vague d'Or in 2004. The awards kept coming, and in 2017, he was honored with 5 toques and a score of 19/20 by Gault&Millau, before being named Chef of the Year 2020. The chef is already well acquainted with Ruinart, having created the menu for several events in recent years, highlighting their shared values.
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From Malataverne to Épernay
Moët & Chandon, another LVMH house, has announced the arrival of a new executive chef, taking over from Marco Fadiga, who has left for Dom Pérignon: Jean-Michel Bardet. The former chef of the Domaine du Colombier, in Malataverne, originally from the south of France, has now settled in Épernay, after the Côte d'Azur, London, Paris, Megève and Hong Kong. The chef will be working at the Résidence de Trianon, avenue de Champagne, in Épernay, and at the Château de Saran, in the heart of the vineyards, the two prestigious Moët & Chandon reception sites. "I've always been a champagne lover. At the age of 48, after thinking long and hard about my profession and my career, I felt the need for a change," explains Jean-Michel Bardet. Driven by the desire to continue learning, the importance of research and development in the position offered convinced me to join Moët & Chandon. I was also attracted by the original approach of building recipes around the wine, rather than the other way around, and I'll be working hand in hand with the cellar master, Benoît Gouez, to achieve this."In this way, Jean-Michel Bardet will contribute to the search for the perfect balance between food and champagne, based on six principles: dialogue, simplicity, colors, saltiness, textures and cooking. Only after choosing a cuvée from the Moët & Chandon range will the executive chef imagine his new recipes.
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